


The hell of loneliness

by SuperEllen



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Discrimination, Explicit Language, F/M, M/M, Teen Angst, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-20 22:15:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6027373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperEllen/pseuds/SuperEllen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iruka is a big city boy, so he's not happy when he's forced to move in with his grandfather and little cousin in a small town called Konoha. He doesn't have any friends in town, he has doubts about himself, and he's afraid of starting classes at the new school.</p><p>On the other hand, Kakashi is the most popular guy in school, the one every single girl has a crush on, but it looks like he doesn't even acknowledge the existence of other human beings.</p><p>So different, yet both so alone.</p><p>***</p><p>TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED - will resume as soon as possible</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Moving day

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to set this story in Japan, so that the names of the characters would actually fit the setting. But since it came out too difficult to do so, and since I needed the American school system for this to work out, the story is set somewhere in the United States and let’s pretend that the names are normal, okay?
> 
> Also, please note that English is NOT my first language, and I’m a little rusty when it comest to writing in English. So please don’t kill me if you find some terrible mistakes! I’m actually looking for a native English speaker to be my beta reader for this, so that I can avoid making myself look ridiculous…

Moving to a new town was never easy. Iruka knew that moving out of the big city would have been difficult, and he really didn’t want to. But he didn’t have a choice. His parents received a huge promotion at work, and with that they had to accept new responsibilities. The company they worked for was expanding, and it needed some trustworthy people to start a new office… in Europe! But that wasn’t good for their son at all. Iruka remembered so well the night his parents told him about it. They took him out for dinner, to his favorite restaurant, and they also allowed him to decide what everyone was going to eat. That should have been a bad sign, hadn’t he been too happy to notice. He was halfway through a huge cup of ice-cream when he noticed the looks on his parents’s faces. They looked concerned, almost sad. Was something wrong? And just when his mother asked him if he wanted more ice-cream a thought came to his mind. He remembered his parents had acted this strange once in the past. It happened when he was eleven, and when they came home from the night out they told him that his uncle and aunt had died in a car accident. He let the spoon fall into his ice-cream cup and looked up at both of his parents.

“Has grandpa died?” he asked out of pure concern.

He was already starting to cry when his father told him it wasn’t anything like that. He didn’t know if he could believe them, because the two of them were acting so strange. And that’s when they told him about their promotion. They were going to England to run the new branch of the company, and he couldn’t go with them. They told him he was going to live with his grandfather and his little cousin in Konoha for some time. They said it was going to be just temporary, that he would have been able to join them eventually, but that they needed a few months to adjust to the new situation first. His mother told him it was painful to leave him behind, but that it would have been too difficult for him to change his life entirely before they even settled there, and that staying with his grandfather was going to be the best chance he had to live a normal life for the time being.

That felt like a nightmare. Iruka spent the last few days in his hometown acting like he was going to die any moment. And then the moving day came, he packed two suitcases and a backpack with all of his belongings and told his mother he was ready. It was a week before the beginning of the school year when the three of them were ready to leave. Iruka turned around from the back seat of his father’s car to see his home, his town, become smaller and smaller as they drove away.

They left very early in the morning, and it was already lunch time when they reached the small town in the countryside where his grandfather lived. His grandmother died when he was two years old, too young to remember her, but he often visited his grandfather during his childhood. When his uncle and aunt died, his little cousin moved to live with his grandfather, and Iruka always remembered having fun while visiting the two of them. But living with them on a regular basis? That would have been a whole different thing.

For starters, he was a big city boy. He spent his childhood and the first years of his teens in a metropolis, while his grandfather’s town was smaller than his old neighborhood. He was very well aware that his mother grew up there, but he also knew that as soon as she finished high school she left for college and never came back. Konoha was fun for a two-week visit during the summer, but Iruka was pretty sure that living there would have been too boring to even think about it. And then there was his little cousin. He loved the kid, but Naruto was eight and he was hyperactive. It would have been difficult to concentrate on homework with a child running around all the time. Iruka didn’t have any siblings, so it was new for him to have some kind of little brother in the house.

His main concern, by the way, was that he had to say goodbye to his friends. He actually cried when he hugged his best friend, never knowing if they were going to see each other again. That was the most painful thing he had ever done! He also had to dump his girlfriend, because he didn’t think he could handle a long distance relationship. Iruka was also sure he was going to miss his school, his teachers, and all of his schoolmates.

“We’re almost there, dear.” his mother said, snapping Iruka out of his daydream.

The teenager looked out of the window, seeing several small houses pass by. There was a lot of green there, children were playing in the street. It was so different… he wasn’t sure he could have ever been able to call this place home. Where were the skyscrapers full of small apartments? Where were all the _people_? He was fifteen, he had so many things to worry about in his life, he still had a lot to figure out about himself. And just when he was about to start, when he was ready to try something new, he had to say goodbye to his life and move to this microscopic dot on the State map.

“We’re here.” Iruka heard his father say.

The teenager sighed heavily and took another good look outside the window. The car had just stopped in front of a small house. From there Iruka could see the garden with recently mowed grass and a few fruit trees. Inside the garden there was a small walkway of cobbles that went all the way to the house. The house itself was two stories, with a wooden façade that was visible from the outside. He remembered the time he spent playing in that garden with his grandfather, or trying to throw a football to the roof with his little cousin. It had been fun when it was just a holiday activity.

As soon as the car stopped outside the external fence, the front door swung open and a blonde kid ran out with an incredibly wide smile. The moment Iruka got out of the car, the kid jumped in his arms and hugged him tightly.

“Iruka I’m so happy to see you! Now that you’re coming to live with me and grandpa we’re going to be like brothers!” young Naruto said with his happy child voice.

Iruka felt a surge of affection towards his little cousin that made him hug Naruto back as much tightly. Iruka’s parents got off the car too and they started unloading his luggage. They were making their way to the small gate when the door opened again and a man in his late fifties walked out to greet them.

“Welcome, welcome! Let me help you with those.” the man said as he tried to take a suitcase out of his daughter’s hands.

“Dad, it’s so good to see you again!” the woman said, and she put down the suitcase to hug her father.

“Long time no see, Jiraiya!” Iruka’s father also greeted the man.

Naruto let go of Iruka to hug his aunt and uncle too, and the teenager walked towards his grandfather. The last time they met had been for Christmas, when Jiraiya came to visit them in the city with Naruto to spend the holidays together. He still looked younger than he was, as always. His long untidy white hair made him look like some kind of punk, but Iruka always thought it was actually cool. His grandfather wasn’t just the regular old guy, mostly because he had his first daughter at the age of eighteen and he had to grow up too fast in order to become a father, so part of him actually never grew up at all.

Iruka hugged Jiraiya and the man picked him up from the ground the same way he could have done with a kid Naruto’s age. The teenager was hugged so strongly he could barely breathe, and for the first time since his parents told him about the moving he felt so happy he could actually laugh. And so he laughed, he laughed hard until he had tears in his eyes.

“I missed you grandpa!” he said with a soft voice.

“Well, you’re going to see a whole lot of me from now on, little man!” his grandfather replied.

Iruka let go of the hug the moment he was placed back on solid ground. His grandfather’s last sentence was enough to kill his joy, but he tried to stay happy anyway. He understood that moving to another continent and leaving him behind was hard enough for his parents, even without him crying like a baby. So he forced himself to be strong, to keep on smiling.

A few minutes later they were all inside the house. Everything was exactly as Iruka remembered. The front door opened on a small corridor with a door on the left, a door on the right and a staircase right in front. He knew very well that the door on the left led to the large kitchen, while the one on the right was the living room door. He also knew that behind the staircase, with access from the living room, there were a very small guest room and an even smaller bathroom. For the past four years he slept in that room whenever they came to visit his grandfather, and he always thought it was terribly uncomfortable. He preferred his uncle’s old bedroom, where he used to sleep before Naruto moved in and claimed the room for himself.

“From now on you’ll be staying in your mother’s old bedroom.” Jiraiya told Iruka when he saw his grandson stop in front of the staircase.

In return, Iruka smiled at him. At least that was good news: he liked that bedroom, it was large and comfortable, but he never slept there since his parents used to occupy it every time they visited. But now, since he was going to actually live there, it was only fit that he would have a real bedroom for himself. With this thought in mind, Iruka followed his grandfather upstairs, carrying his backpack. His father was carrying his largest suitcase, his grandfather the other one. Upstairs he saw a corridor on the right and a door on the left. The door on the left was hiding the master bedroom, that was huge and with a private bathroom; he knew that was Jiraiya’s room. The corridor on the right was pretty long, and at the end of it there was the door of the main bathroom. Walking along the corridor, Iruka spotted a door on the right. He would have known it was Naruto’s bedroom even if the kid hadn’t attached his drawings on the door to cover his father’s name, that was carved in the wood with something that looked like a kitchen knife. A couple of steps after that, another door lead to Iruka’s mother’s old bedroom, the one that was going to be his new room.

Walking past the door, Iruka was glad to see that his grandfather hadn’t kept any of his mother’s childhood mementos. Not in there, at least. The room was large, with a huge wardrobe, a bookshelf, a desk and a comfortable-looking queen-size bed. It was actually bigger than his bedroom back home, but it didn’t look at all like it was _his_. He had posters and pictures on the walls of his old bedroom, and for a moment he had thought about bringing them along to decorate the new room, but in the end he had decided that he’d rather not. He didn’t want to have his old life staring at him all the time, not when he knew he couldn’t get it back. He preferred to wait until he had new memories to put on the walls. But was he going to make new good memories in a place like that? Was he even going to make new friends?

He didn’t know a single soul in town. Every time he visited his grandfather in the past, he always spent just a few days there. During those days he seldom left the house, and when he did he was with his family the entire time. He never had time to meet people, to know kids his age. And now that he was moving in, he had to start from scratch. Iruka looked at Naruto, who was jumping on his bed to make him see how comfortable it was, and for a moment he envied the kid: when his parents died, he moved to a different house, but he never had to leave town since he already lived in Konoha. But that thought was gone in an instant: Naruto’s parents were _dead_ , how could he envy him? As the thought was leaving his mind, he turned towards his own parents; they were arranging his luggage in a corner, so that it wouldn’t be in the way. Iruka had been mad at them for days, since they told him about the moving, but only then he realized how much he actually loved them, and most of all how much he was going to miss them.

* * *

After a good lunch, it was past 2pm when Iruka’s parents left, but it took him another hour before he was able to get rid of Naruto and barricade himself in his new bedroom. He loved to play with his little cousin, but enough was enough. Naruto was overexcited at the idea of having his older cousin around, but Iruka didn’t have any time to spend with him. Not yet, at least. He was still confused because of the thoughts he had earlier about Naruto’s parents. Thinking about it now, after a few hours, it just looked ridiculous that even for a moment he wished his parents were as dead as his uncle and aunt. But still, they were moving to England and leaving him behind. That was hard to digest, because it almost felt like they didn’t want him around anymore. Of course he _knew_ it wasn’t true, yet he couldn’t help but feel that way.

Lying on his bed, his arms under the head and staring at the ceiling, Iruka wished his best friend was there. He would have known what to do for sure! He was a smart guy after all, and funny; he could always make Iruka laugh, even in the worst of situations. They grew up like brothers, friends since they were ten years old. They were always together, both at school and outside. And now Iruka couldn’t even picture his new life without his best friend. Of course they could still text or Skype, but it wasn’t the same. Just when he was having strange thoughts about his best friend, Iruka got separated from him.

It all started at the beginning of summer holidays. He was at home with his girlfriend and his best friend, his girlfriend kissed him and his best friend smiled at them. He remembered that smile: it was pure and full of kindness. It was so comforting that he dreamt about it the following night, and the one after that. He kept dreaming about his best friend’s smiling face for days, and every time he woke up with a huge erection problem. At the beginning he couldn’t figure out why he was suddenly waking up with an aching erection every day, but after a little while he realized it was _him_. Dreaming about his best friend made his cock hard. But the most curious thing was that during the day, when they spent time together, he didn’t feel the same way as he was feeling in his dreams. And yet again, every night his dreams became crazier and crazier, until he ended up dreaming of having sex with his best friend. But then, when he saw him the following day, he still couldn’t feel any attraction towards the boy.

All of those feelings towards his best friend were confusing, so confusing that they made him doubt his own sexuality. He had a girlfriend, but it wasn’t like he was so attracted to her. Their mothers were friends, so they’d known each other since they were in diapers. He never thought she was any different from the other girls, but then two years before she confessed her feelings for him and he thought it was just obvious to kiss her. From that moment on she’d been his girlfriend, but they’d never done much more than kissing. None of them had felt comfortable with going any further; not until that summer, at least. Just a month before, she told him she was ready to have sex with him. At first Iruka was so excited at the idea, but when he was there he actually couldn’t bring himself to do it. They were both there, naked in his bed, a condom on his cock, his parents out for at least another three hours, and he panicked. He wasn’t ready for sex after all, not when he was spending his nights dreaming about another boy.

He felt bad about the way he ended things with the girl. After he realized he couldn’t have sex with her, Iruka started spending more and more time thinking about their relationship. He wasn’t even sure he actually liked girls anymore, so why was he even bothering to keep that relationship going? He was just playing her, and she deserved better. She was a wonderful girl, she deserved to be loved. He was thinking about ending things with her, when all of a sudden his parents told him about the moving. So when he dumped her with just a few words, he said it was because he was moving out of town. He told her he couldn’t bear a long-distance relationship, and that he was going to miss the wonderful time they spent together in the past two years. It wasn’t entirely a lie, but of course it wasn’t the whole truth either.

So he left town, and he had to say goodbye to the girl who loved him and to the boy he might have been attracted to. Before his parents told him about the moving, he wanted to start experimenting with his sexuality. He was having sex dreams about his male best friend, he couldn’t bring himself to have sex with his girlfriend… all of that was a sign. Maybe he liked boys, after all, he just didn’t know it yet. Therefore he wanted to try something new, maybe with his best friend, to see what would happen. But during his last few days in town, knowing he was going away for a very long time, maybe forever, he couldn’t find the strength he needed to kiss another boy. He left like a coward, a coward who didn’t even know if he was gay or not. And what if he was? In a big city that wasn’t so strange at all, but in a small town like Konoha it would have been the worst thing that could have happened to him.

Iruka turned around in his bed until he was in fetal position, with his back to the window. He felt like his head was about to explode for extensive thinking. He would have liked to have someone he could talk to about his troubles, but there was no such person. He was almost warming up to the idea of talking to his mother, but now his mother was gone and that wasn’t an option anymore. It would have been too difficult to talk to her, knowing that she was on a whole different time zone. His ex girlfriend and his best friend weren’t the right people to talk to for sure: he didn’t want to tell them how he was feeling because he was afraid to hurt their feelings. His grandfather was cool, but he was still _his grandfather_ , and they never had that kind of confidence. So Iruka knew he was doomed to keep his turbulent feelings for himself.

* * *

A blonde woman heard the voice of a teenage boy say goodbye a moment before the front door was closed. When she was sure she was alone, Tsunade took out a bottle of brandy and filled a small glass. Then she reached for her cellphone and looked for a phone number registered under the letter _J_. When she found it, she pressed the _call_ button and waited while the phone was ringing. After a few seconds a man picked up.

“Tsunade, it’s been a while!” he said with a friendly voice.

“I know, but it’s always good to hear you’re as loud as ever, my old friend.” she was actually smiling when she said those words, but a moment later there was no evidence of a smile on her lips “You said your eldest grandson was moving in with you today. Has he arrived?” she asked, anxiety palpable in her tone.

“Oh yes, he arrived today. I was about to call him for dinner, but if you want I can pass the phone to him.” Jiraiya said to his life-long best friend.

“Oh no, that won’t be necessary. But I think it will be lovely if we could organize a dinner sometimes, to have the boys meet.” Tsunade suggested.

“What a great idea! Just give Iruka some time to settle down, and then we’ll be glad to have you over for dinner!” the old man was thrilled about the idea.

The conversation didn’t last very long, but after she hung up the phone Tsunade wasn’t too concerned anymore. Her nephew was going out for dinner with his friends, yet she knew that none of them was actually his friend. But now Jiraiya’s grandson was in town and he was going to stay for a while, so maybe… maybe things could actually change for her sweet little boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In order to avoid any misunderstandings, even though I already said that the story is set in the United States, I will never name any OCs, so that I won’t have to mention any names that might clash with the setting itself. By the way, just to give a general idea of what I have in mind for the locations, I imagine Iruka coming from Philadelphia, and Konoha being somewhere in West Virginia. This will never be mentioned in the story though.


	2. New beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love to thank everyone who've read the story so far, and remind you that English is not my language so if you find some major mistakes please forgive me!

Time was running by quicker than Iruka would have wanted. On his first night in Konoha he didn’t sleep very well, he just kept having strange dreams about his best friend back home. When he woke up the next morning, by the way, he had no erection, but his eyes were wet and swollen. It looked like he had been crying for most of the night. He couldn’t let his grandfather or his little cousin know though, so as soon as he got off the bed he washed his face with cold water and went downstairs for breakfast. It was a Monday morning, and a week from then he would have started school.

“Iruka! I have the whole day planned for the two of us. In the morning we’ll play in the garden, I was thinking maybe we could play baseball, and then after lunch we can go to the park. It has this nice ice-cream parlor on the other site of the street, you have to try the strawberry flavor! I also want you to meet my friend Sasuke, but maybe another day. Today I want the two of us to hang out alone, I missed playing with you so much!” it was difficult to stop Naruto’s cheerful chat.

Iruka was overwhelmed by the stream of words. Seriously, how could that kid be so talkative that early in the morning? He still was half asleep, so he wasn’t actually able to follow everything Naruto said. He was trying to think about something to say, but luckily his grandfather decided it was the right moment to put the pancakes on the table and sit down with the two of them.

“Calm down, Naruto.” Jiraiya said while serving pancakes to his grandsons “You may be able to hang out later, but first Iruka has to think about school.”

Naruto looked at his grandfather with resentment, but then he pierced a pancake with his fork and started to eat it. He looked like some kind of small animal, and the thought of that made Iruka chuckle. Maybe he was going to have fun with his cousin, after all. In that moment, anyway, he was glad that someone had thought about relieving him from the duty of spending too much time with the kid. He was about to thank his grandfather for the save, when he actually realized what the man’s words really meant. He had to get ready for school. He was going to spend most of the day purchasing new school supplies, and he was probably going to the school itself to enroll before the new term started. That didn’t sound like fun either.

But the day went by in a heartbeat, and what looked like just moments later Iruka found himself watching cartoons with Naruto before going to bed. The day could have been worse, no doubt, but Naruto’s constant presence wasn’t helping at all. Iruka would have loved to have some time to spend on his own, but he still had to figure out how exactly to do that with the kid jumping around him all day long. Luckily, Naruto’s bed time came way earlier than his own, so when he was sure that the kid was asleep he retreated to his bedroom and lay down on his bed again, staring at the ceiling.

During the day he had received a bunch of texts from his ex girlfriend, where she told him how much she loved him and how much she missed him already. It was actually painful, because Iruka couldn’t bring himself to say those things back. His thoughts during the day had been mostly for his parents, who in that precise moment were probably flying over the ocean towards England. But even if he hadn’t been thinking about his parents, how could he tell her he loved her back? In order to do that it had to be true, and it sure wasn’t. Even if he still hadn’t figured out the best way to let her know that.

* * *

The following day wasn’t very different from the previous one. Iruka woke up from another good night of solid crying, washed his face with cold water, walked into the kitchen for breakfast and had his ears assaulted by Naruto’s chattiness. Was he ever going to get used to this? Iruka’s brain usually wasn’t functioning before breakfast, while his little cousin seemed perfectly at ease when it came to talking a lot right after waking up. And that was exactly what Iruka couldn’t understand at all. Still, he had to find a way to live with this, because he doubted that Naruto could have been any different on school days, and just thinking that the kid was going to talk this much at the beginning of a school day made him shiver.

Even if school crossed Iruka’s mind several times during his last week of summer holidays, he tried not to give too much importance to that thought. And of course he failed. He was worried about what was going to happen on Monday the following week, when he was going to enter Konoha High School as a student for the first time. Konoha was so small it only had one high school, meaning that most likely all of the other students knew each other already. Probably even the freshmen knew many of the older kids. He, on the other hand, was going to be the new kid in the sophomore class. He would enter that school without knowing the name of a single student, but probably by the end of first period every single student in the building would have known him as the boy who just moved into town.

On Thursday afternoon, while Iruka was playing hide and seek with Naruto, the thought of his new school slipped once again to the front of his mind. He walked around the garden looking for his little cousin, yet he wasn’t focused on the task. He imagined walking down a hallway full of students, all of them staring at him and whispering to each other. On the back of the house there was a quite large wooden cabin that his grandfather used for storage; Iruka was so lost in his own thoughts that he almost bumped into one of its wooden walls while wondering around the garden. With that he came back to reality, and he opened the door of the cabin to check if Naruto was in there; he wasn’t. He’d been looking for more than ten minutes, he searched everywhere. Either Naruto was getting too good at hiding, or he was getting too distracted to find him. And since Iruka had never lost a game of hide and seek with his little cousin, maybe the most reasonable answer was that he was actually too distracted to play. Naruto wasn’t _that_ good!

He shook his head the moment he decided to concentrate. He was going to find Naruto, as if his life depended on it! He wasn’t going to lose to an eight-year-old, he was too proud for that! So he stood perfectly still for a few seconds, trying to listen carefully to the sounds surrounding him. If he wasn’t able to see the kid, maybe he would have been able to hear him. But he couldn’t hear a thing, so he decided to move again and keep looking for his cousin. Their rules said that they couldn’t leave the garden, so it meant no hiding inside the house and no exiting the gate. Yet again, Naruto seemed to have vanished. Iruka then saw something move inside a bush and, without even thinking, he jumped in that direction. The teenager was sure he was going to find the little brat this time, but when he landed badly with his arms in the bush, a scared cat ran away from it as fast as it could.

“I won! I won!” Iruka turned around when he heard those words in his cousin’s happy voice.

Naruto was standing under the apple tree, his right hand on the trunk, bouncing around like a blonde grasshopper. He was laughing, and he looked as happy as any kid his age could be, so proud because he’d been able to beat his older cousin for the first time after years of trying. While looking at him, Iruka wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh with him, or just go there to hug him and cry. He felt so sad every time he thought about the death of Naruto’s parents. The kid was an orphan, yet he was fine. Well, better than him anyway. Iruka didn’t know if Naruto missed his parents, he couldn’t bring himself to ask him that, but he knew for sure that his situation was an easy one if compared to Naruto’s. He was going to see his parents again in a few months, he was going to move to England as soon as they got settled down; Naruto didn’t have any parents left, just a grandfather.

Iruka looked at Naruto and smiled. If the kid could be an orphan and still manage to be this happy, he had no excuses at all. He was going to survive; living in Konoha full-time, going to school there, knowing that his parents were on the other side of the ocean, leaving his friends back home. All of that was painful, but he could handle it. Just taking a good look at his little cousin’s smiling face gave him the strength to go on.

* * *

The last weekend before going back to school was strange. Sensing the end of the holidays, Naruto had become even louder than usual. Iruka, on the other hand, was still worried about starting classes. What if he wasn’t able to make any friends at school? Nothing could scare him more than going to school every day knowing that no-one had his back. In a big school where every student only knew their own friends, having no-one might have been sad but okay. But in a place where everybody knew everyone else? Being the friendless new kid might have been the worst nightmare in the world. Iruka just hoped this wasn’t going to be the case.

On Sunday evening, after dinner, the idea of going back to school was so intense in the house that tension could almost be touched. Jiraiya tried his very best to help his grandsons through the trauma of a new school year, but he ended up not being so useful after all. Naruto just threw new school books and pencils at him, yelling that going to school was useless and that he wanted to spend his days playing with Iruka in the park. Iruka, on the other hand, didn’t get violent with his grandfather, but he fled the kitchen while he was still chewing his last bite. He shut himself inside his bedroom, mostly to avoid being hit by something Naruto was throwing but also to be alone. That was his last chance to think of a plan. Something that could have helped him get along at school.

He sat down on his bed, resting his back against the bedroom wall. He closed his eyes trying to concentrate. There was silence in his bedroom, so much silence that he could easily hear Naruto and grandpa yelling at each other downstairs. This was another thing he wasn’t sure he could get used to: the silence. In the big city there was always some kind of background sound - traffic, sirens, people talking in the streets, some neighbor’s TV - so it was difficult to concentrate on single noises, even if they were incredibly loud. But the only background sound in Konoha was the distant chirp of crickets, so far away that Iruka considered it to be like silence itself. Naruto throwing a tantrum and his grandfather scolding him was such a deafening sound in Konoha’s evening.

Iruka tried to concentrate on his own thoughts as much as he could. He needed to figure out a plan, something that could help him get through his first day of school. He wanted to look cool, so he could be accepted by his new schoolmates. But how could he do that? As far as he knew, the newest student in a small school was going to be on everyone’s radar for a while. This meant that he needed to give a good impression to everyone, in order to be accepted as one of them, but at the same time he shouldn’t overdo it, or the other kids would just consider him a spoiled brat from the big city. It wasn’t easy at all.

He stood up from the bed and slowly walked to the wardrobe. He’d already finished unpacking his clothes, even if he still had to start unpacking the rest of his stuff. With a look of determination on his face, Iruka started rummaging through his clothes. He was searching for the perfect outfit to wear on his first day of school, something that could make him look okay but not too cool. Something nice but not too expensive-looking. That wasn’t an easy task at all.

After more than twenty minutes, Iruka’s search gave a good result. He picked a pair of dark blue jeans, not too tight but at the same time not too saggy, that would have been perfect to wear with his favorite black sneakers. He also chose to wear a black long-sleeved t-shirt, since it was too cold for short sleeves and still too hot for a sweatshirt. Iruka spent several additional minutes staring at the clothes now spread on his bed. Then, when everything seemed satisfying enough, he carefully put the clothes on his desk and started undressing. While putting his pajamas on, Iruka thought that maybe things were going to be okay. He just needed to be more confident, and his first day of school would have been just perfect. Or at least that’s what he hoped for when he was going to sleep.

* * *

No-one in Konoha really liked the end of summer holidays. The routine was boring, when it included going to school every day. And even if he usually found a way to skip the drag of actually attending classes, he still didn’t like the idea of waking up early in the morning and having to ride his motorbike all the way to school. Konoha High School was his playground, it had been since the moment he started his freshman year. And now that he was a senior, nothing was going to change. He felt some kind of comfort in that thought. He was forced to go to school, but he was going to rule the fucking place!

“Hey K!” a voice calling for him distracted the boy from his mind trip “Have you figured out a way to inaugurate the new school year tomorrow?”

He was sitting on a bench at the park, a streetlamp lighting up the surrounding area just enough for him to see the other boy approaching. He was leaning on the back of the bench in a comfortable but still not very polite way, his legs stretched out on the ground and wide open. His right hand was clutching the bottle of beer that was resting on high right thigh. He was just seventeen, but he was incredibly tall and bulk for his age. Even if he was underage, he was always able to buy alcoholic beverages on his own, given the fact that he looked like a scary twenty-five-year-old and no-one ever dared to ask him to show an ID.

The other boy stopped right in front of the bench, looking at him with a huge sneer on his face. He was as tall as the big boy was, but he was so thin that sometimes he looked like a ghost by his side. His peer also had a frightful sneer that usually scared younger kids away; that same sneer he was giving him in that precise moment. He liked the other boy’s sneer; he thought it was charming, in some sick and twisted way. For a moment he stared at the boy standing beside him, then he sneered back, an even more vicious sneer, and waved his left hand to let the other boy understand he could sit down with him. Only when they were both on the bench he started talking.

“I can’t wait to see the new freshmen. At the end of last term I heard that some nerd graduated from junior high a whole year younger than his classmates. I’d like to see that!” he said in his strong gruff voice.

“Wonderful! That should be fun!” the other boy looked thrilled at the idea of having such a young student to harass “I also heard that a new kid moved into town and he’s going to be a sophomore. Maybe we can check that out too.” the boy added with a mischievous grin.

“I love the way that sounds!” he really was curious to see this new kid. Life was starting to get boring, after all. And maybe, if he was lucky, he could find a way to traumatize the newcomer too.

Zabuza’s mother worked in the school administration office, and for that reason the kid was always well informed about pretty much everything. He suspected this was also the reason why Zabuza never flunked any of their classes: Zabuza’s school marks were even worse than his own, but at the end of each term the teachers somehow took pity on him and gave him the C that he needed in order to pass. He never voiced his theory though, since Zabuza was actually one of the very few people he didn’t like to pester. They’d been friends since kindergarten, best friends to be more precise, and he didn’t like the idea of turning his closest ally into a possible enemy.

He drank his beer with mechanical gestures, staring at the shadows of the trees. It was getting late and it was a school night, he probably should have been asleep already, but he didn’t care. He had never cared about stuff like that, actually. He always did whatever he liked, and fuck the old hag if she tried to stop him! He was the man of the house, had been since he was ten, and he sure wasn’t going to let a woman tell him what to do. And he was always so pleased to see that Zabuza was ready to defy his mother and step-father in order to keep him company. Zabuza was a good friend, after all, a friend who didn’t deserve to be punished for staying out until late with him.

“It’s almost midnight. You should go home, you know? Before your folks call the cops and declare you a missing person.” he stated with a half smile.

Zabuza raised one eyebrow and looked at his friend with more attention. “What about you?” he asked, as he knew very well that his friend wasn’t the kind of person to just go to sleep like a good boy. He was the farthest thing possible from a good boy, after all.

He shrugged after hearing the question, stopping for a few seconds to really consider the answer. What was he going to do? Wondering around town at night was boring, when he was doing it alone. But he didn’t want to force Zabuza to stay. He also didn’t want to call any of his other friends, since they probably where fast asleep at that time. They all had families who cared about their education, after all. He was the only exception.

“Maybe I’ll grab another beer and then call it a night.” he said with casual tone, hiding the thoughts of caring families in the back of his mind.

“Okay, so I’ll leave you to your beer then.” Zabuza said standing up.

“Sure! See you tomorrow at school?” he waved goodbye to his friend from his comfortable spot on the park bench.

“Yup! ‘Night, Kisame.” 

And with those last few words Zabuza left. Kisame stared at his friend’s back until it was so lost in the dark of night that he couldn’t see it anymore. Only then he moved his gaze to the closest tree in front of him. It was almost entirely surrounded by other trees, bigger trees, in a way that made them look like some kind of green family. Okay, that was a very strange thought: he didn’t even have _that much_ to drink, yet! Thinking about families wasn’t good for Kisame, not good at all. 

He sighed and downed the rest of his beer. He drank it so quickly that he felt an unpleasant dizziness when he jumped up to walk back to the bar and get another one. It took him a few seconds to steady his feet on the ground, and when he was sure that he wasn’t going to fall down he walked to the trash bin and let the empty bottle fall inside it. Maybe it was time for him to go home too, after all. He could always drink another beer tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo… Here we see how Iruka’s new life with Jiraiya & Naruto is going, and we also meet a couple of new characters as well. From this chapter we understand that Iruka is having a hard time adapting, that Naruto still has the power to give other people strength, that Zabuza is a good friend and that Kisame has family issues.
> 
> I hope you like the story so far, and I announce you that from now on I’ll be updating once a week. Every Tuesday, if possible.


	3. Konoha High School

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, at the end of the previous chapter I said I was going to update every Tuesday, and I'm aware that I'm one day late. I'm blaming my delay entirely on Star Wars TFA, since reading and writing Kylux fanfictions is proving pretty distracting...  
> Also, I'm not too happy with the way this chapter turned out. But Iruka's first day of school was too long, so I had to cut it in half at some point...

Since Konoha was so _small_ , it just took a few minutes to reach the town center from almost everywhere. Konoha High School was right at the center of town, a few steps away from Konoha’s City Hall. Iruka was only fifteen, too young to have a car, therefore he had to walk to school everyday. In the big city he used to take the bus, but in Konoha that wasn’t necessary. His grandfather had shown him the way in advance: he could leave home by 8am and be at school by 8.15 maximum.

In the morning of his first day of school, Iruka went downstairs for breakfast already dressed with what he had prepared the night before. The first thing he realized, as soon as he entered the kitchen, was that Naruto could actually cry. He didn’t think it was possible, since he was always smiling, but in that precise moment the kid was crying his eyes out all over his french toast. On the other side of the table, Jiraiya was slowly sipping a cup of coffee while reading a newspaper, ignoring the desperate child entirely. Iruka took a generous portion of french toast for himself and sat down, looking from his grandfather to his cousin, and then back to his grandfather. No-one seemed to have acknowledged his presence in the room.

“What’s wrong with you two?” he asked, right before he started eating.

“Naruto thinks that if he cries long enough, I’ll allow him to drop out of school. I’m just ignoring him until he stops.” his grandfather replied.

Iruka looked at the old man for just another moment, perplexed. Then he shrugged and decided to ignore the fact that his grandfather was probably going to let his little cousin scream until his lungs fell off. He started eating his breakfast, trying to stay positive, but it was actually too difficult when an eight-year-old was acting like someone was torturing him. Iruka really couldn’t think of a worse way to start his first day of school. 

When breakfast was over, Iruka left the house with the rest of his family. He saw his grandfather drag Naruto by force and put him in the back seat of the car, ready to take him to school. He waved the two of them goodbye when the car pulled out of the parking space, and before they were gone he noticed that the screaming kid was hitting the window with his little fists. Naruto really looked like a kidnapped child, so Iruka hoped that his grandfather would be able to take him safely to school and leave, without any worried passersby calling the police on him for child abuse.

With that thought still in mind, Iruka started to walk towards the center of Konoha, where the high school was located. It didn’t take long, and before he knew it he was standing in front of the school entrance. The front gate was open, and people were arriving from every direction. He marched through the parking lot, watching older students and teachers leave their cars and move towards the school building. There were also several kids arriving by bike, or walking to school just like him. From what he could see, there were more students than he could have imagined, but still less than there were at his old school.

After passing the parking lot, Iruka walked through the spacious garden. It was large and wide, with several picnic tables. He figured that was the place where students could eat lunch when they didn’t want to stay inside the cafeteria. It was quite nice actually, nicer than the gloom room where they ate in his old school. Maybe this new school wasn’t that bad, after all.  
His old school was a single huge building, with bars at the windows making it look like a prison. Konoha High School instead looked more like a campus. It was nice, actually. He remembered the day he’d walked the hallways with his grandfather, a woman from the administration office by their side to show them the classrooms. When the school was empty, it hadn’t looked quite as impressive as it did with students walking all around.

Iruka pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and looked at the number of his locker. Number 83. While walking past the rows of lockers, he could feel the gaze of several people on his back. The teenager tried to ignore them, even if it was difficult; he was starting to feel nervous. He actually felt relieved when he found the locker he was looking for. After opening it and leaving there the books he didn’t need for the first period, he started to look for the English literature class.

Finding the class wasn’t as easy as it seemed, since he didn’t want to look like an idiot by asking someone for directions. He got lost a couple of times, and when he finally was able to find the right place, he could see that several students were already inside. With horror, Iruka noticed that all the seats in the back of the classroom were already taken. Nice; not only he was the new kid, but he also had to sit in the front row. He just hoped that the action wouldn’t make him look like a teacher’s pet. People were already staring at him enough, he didn’t need that too!

He felt so uncomfortable that he wished for the teacher to just hurry up and start the lesson. What he didn’t expect, though, was for someone to sit next to him and try to gain his attention by touching his shoulder. Iruka turned to his left to take a good look at the person on the neighboring seat. A girl with shoulder-long bright pink hair was smiling politely in his direction. His first reaction was to widen his eyes, since he really wasn’t expecting _that_ kind of hair color.

“Hi! You’re new, aren’t you?” she said. She had a very delicate voice, he noticed, so she probably was a nice girl.

“Hello. Yes, I’m new…” Iruka said, not knowing exactly what to do.

“I’m Sakura. Sakura Haruno.” she introduced herself, offering him a hand.

“Nice to meet you, Sakura.” Iruka actually didn’t expect for someone to just introduce themselves to him before the first period started, and he looked entirely unprepared for that “I’m Iruka. Iruka Umino.”

He shook her hand and smiled in return. In the five minutes they had before the arrival of the teacher, they just kept up some small talk. It actually seemed comfortable to chat with her, even if she stopped talking to him several times in order to say hello to some other kids. She didn’t introduce him to the people she greeted, but Iruka was okay with that. Meeting more people at once might have been a problem, especially if he ended up forgetting their names and therefore looking stupid. Also, since people were actually saying hello to Sakura with big smiles, it meant that she wasn’t a weirdo avoided by the rest of the school; actually, she was probably a quite normal person, and befriending a normal person was a really good thing for the new kid in town.

When the teacher came in, everyone sat down in silence. Iruka could feel the authority of the old woman, and when she started to talk he realized she probably was incredibly strict, because no-one dared to get distracted. The only exception was a boy in the back of the class, sitting near the window, who seemed to be looking outside with a rather bored expression on his face. What he also noticed was that the teacher yelled at everyone who wasn’t paying attention, but she never yelled at that boy. That was rather curious, and it took Iruka to steal quick glances of that particular classmate every time he was sure that the teacher wasn’t looking his way.

At the end of first period, he left the class with Sakura. They soon realized that they had every single class in common, and she was so kind to offer to show him around since he was new. Geography was their next class, but before going there they needed to reach their lockers to put down the literature books and take the geography ones. While they were walking along the hallway where the literature classroom was, he felt the need to ask a question about something that had been bothering him for the most part of the last hour.

“Sakura, I’m curious about something. Back in literature class, the teacher pretended full attention from everyone. But there was this boy in the back row who spent the entire time looking outside the window. Why didn’t she tell him to pay attention to the lesson?” Iruka inquired.

“Oh, that would be Shikamaru.” she said immediately with an amused smile “Teachers always allow him to do whatever he wants, as long as he doesn’t make any noise that would disturb the lesson. And he never does, he usually just stares at the clouds or takes a nap. Shikamaru only comes to school because attendance is mandatory, but he actually doesn’t need to listen to the teachers. He’s such a genius that classes bore him to death because they’re too easy. He could have started college this year, but he refused a full scholarship at Harvard. He’s lazy as hell, he says college is troublesome.”

Sakura concluded her explanation with a soft giggle, and Iruka just stared at her unable to believe what he heard. While looking at that Shikamaru’s attitude for a few moments, he figured the boy might have had some kind of mental problem, since a strict teacher didn’t bother with the fact that he never took his eyes away from the window. Iruka never could have guessed that the kid was actually such a genius! Also, how could anyone be _so lazy_ to turn down a scholarship at Harvard? For a moment he also considered the possibility that Sakura was lying in order to impress him, even if he couldn’t figure out any reasons she could have had for such a lie. So maybe - probably, actually - she was just telling the truth.

They were walking along one of the hallways - Iruka didn’t know which one, since he already felt lost - and when Iruka started to voice out how much the news about Shikamaru had shocked him, something in front of him caught his attention. A big guy with dark hair in a football team jacket was walking alongside an incredibly pretty girl in a cheerleader uniform. Just behind them, a group of football players and cheerleaders marched with the attitude of people who thought they were royalty. Everyone in the corridor stepped aside to let them pass.

Iruka stopped to stare at them for a moment, then he felt Sakura’s hand on his chest gently pushing him back towards the wall. The group walked past them without even acknowledging their existence. He kept standing there looking at them, incredulous. In his old school, football players and cheerleaders were cool, but they still were _people_ , somehow. He was pretty sure that they weren’t able to part the waters like Moses while they walked. That, apparently, was a prerogative of Konoha’s cool guys.

“Who are those guys? And why is everybody getting out of the way when they pass?” he asked after Sakura had removed the hand from his chest, the group of cool kids gone.

“People who don’t move out of the way sometimes get punished.” Sakura shrugged while answering the questions “They’re not bad people, they’re just… _different_. I don’t really know how to explain it. The guy who was in the front is Asuma Sarutobi, of the senior class; he is the quarterback of the football team and the second most popular person in the school. The girl who was with him is Kurenai Yuuhi, of junior class. She’s the head cheerleader, and my childhood best friend.”

Iruka listened to Sakura’s explanation, trying to memorize every word she said. Forgetting the names of the most popular kids in school could have been a problem, especially if he ended up talking with someone other than Sakura. While paying a lot of attention to what the girl was saying, he also noticed that her expression changed a little while talking about that cheerleader. It looked like she was pissed to hear her name, or something like that. She said they were childhood best friends, but when that girl walked by she didn’t even look at Sakura. Thinking about that, Iruka was sure that something had happened between the two.

“Are you okay? You look like something’s bothering you.” Iruka asked, starting to get worried. He actually wanted to ask a more direct question about that Kurenai girl, but he was a very polite boy; such a personal question would have been rude.

Sakura shook her head after starting to walk again towards the lockers. For a moment, Iruka expected her to tell him to mind his own business. At least, that was the look she had on her face, so different from the kind smile she gave him the moment she sat beside him in literature class. But then the smile was back, even if it brought a trace of melancholy to her features. Iruka realized that she was well aware of what he really wanted to know.

“I just can’t stand the sight of Kurenai, that’s all. We were inseparable as kids. But then, when she was in seventh grade, her body started to change and boys started to notice her. On the other end, I was still a kid. So the moment Kurenai became popular she forgot all about me.” Sakura explained, fire building up in her eyes “Now she doesn’t even look a me! Shannaro!”

She concluded another explanation, this time raising her voice while getting closer to the end, and she almost yelled the last word with a fist curled in front of her face. Iruka didn’t even know what ‘shannaro’ meant, but he immediately started to think that Sakura was actually pretty scary. That’s when he decided never to mention that cheerleader in her presence ever again. He just witnessed some kind of change of personality, that transformed the nice and sweet Sakura in some kind of crazy fearsome person, and seeing that change once was more than enough.

The rest of the morning classes went on smoothly. Iruka followed Sakura around the entire time, and sat beside her at each of the following lessons. He found out that they also had maths in common with Shikamaru, the boy he’d noticed in literature class. But this time, Iruka thought, the subject was probably less boring for that kid, because he actually completed a few exercises, and he also corrected the teacher when the man wrote the wrong answer to a problem on the blackboard. Iruka wondered again how someone so intelligent could have turned down Harvard. He probably would have never stopped thinking about this every time he looked at Shikamaru.

Then it was finally lunch break. Iruka followed Sakura to the cafeteria and the two of them stood in line for a few minutes before they were able to take a portion of whatever the school was serving for lunch. In Iruka’s old school, Mondays were pizza days. In Konoha High School, however, lunch was an entirely different thing. The serving woman behind the counter put a generous spoonful of _something_ on Iruka’s plate before starting to serve the person in line behind him. The teenager stood there for a few seconds, looking down at the tray he was holding, trying to figure out what exactly he was going to eat.

“Iruka! Come on, hurry up!” Sakura called for him, and only then he realized that she was already heading towards the door that led to the garden.

“Coming!” he answered, and he decided to stop thinking about his lunch and just join the girl.

The two of them walked outside together, sitting down at one of the picnic tables under the sun. The girl, then, started to eat so quickly that whatever was in her plate just vanished. Iruka, instead, was using a fork to poke his meal, trying to understand what the odd-smelling brown balls actually were. He still hadn’t found enough courage to taste his lunch when Sakura stood up; she had already finished eating. Iruka gave her a questioning look.

“I’m sorry, but if things are just like last year, there’s a place where I need to be now.” she said, maybe blushing a little “You don’t have to hurry, you can stay here and eat if you want.”

Iruka shot another look her way, trying to figure out what Sakura was up to. It didn’t seem like she was being rude or something, but she was in a hurry. He immediately wondered why she was acting so strange, all of a sudden. But then he decided to just stop trying to figure out what was going on in the girl’s mind.

“Can I come along?” Iruka tried to ask “I don’t feel like eating this… _thing_ anyway.” he glanced at the dish with disgust.

“Sure!” Sakura brightened while giving that answer “Let’s take the trays back inside and then we can go.”

So Iruka followed the girl back to the cafeteria, where they left their lunch trays on the first table they found. Then they were outside again, circumnavigating the school. On the back of the school there was the football field, and just beside it there was a rather big facility that was connected to the main school building by a small corridor. Girls of every age, and also a few boys, were packed around the windows looking inside. Almost every girl looked excited about whatever they were looking at, while the boys had neutral or bored expressions. All of that raised Iruka’s curiosity: what was happening inside?

As they were getting closer, Sakura was growing eager. She started to run, trying to find a good spot at one of the windows. Iruka ran after her, asking only one question in his mind: what could have happened for Sakura to be so excited? When he finally caught up with the girl, Iruka stopped by her side and took a good look inside the window. It just took him a moment to realize that the room on the other side of the wall was the school gym. And inside that gym, Iruka’s eyes fell on the most amazing creature he had ever seen in his entire life. He could feel the blood boil inside his veins, his face blush and his heart beat like crazy, all because of _that boy_.

* * *

With half of the first day of school gone, Kisame and Zabuza had already skipped two of their morning classes. They really weren’t interested in hearing the teachers talking, so they only attended the two-hour gym class first thing in the morning, then they went entirely MIA. The two of them only reappeared at school when the bell rang announcing the start of lunch break. Kisame didn’t like to stay inside, so they decided to eat in the garden, as they usually did. But Zabuza didn’t like to just sit down and stop at one table, so they spent most of the time walking around. Since neither of them liked the food that the cafeteria had to offer, they both bought a few hot dogs during their unauthorized field trip before lunch break, so they ate those while walking around the school garden.

Kisame’s eyes were scanning the people talking peacefully at the picnic tables, and Zabuza knew that his friend was looking for a new victim. They still hadn’t found the little nerd who started freshman class a year younger than his classmates, and he would have been perfect to help the two of them achieve their goal. They were both stressed because of the beginning of the school year, and they needed someone to pick on in order to feel better. Especially the biggest one of them, who seemed a little restless. And this time, Zabuza could tell, his friend’s attitude had very little to do with school. Kisame had problems at home, even if he never talked about them.

“K, you okay?” Zabuza asked out of nowhere.

The question was so sudden that Kisame got startled. Zabuza could actually feel him thinking. After spending so many years together, he knew his best friend better than anybody else, and he knew perfectly well that after his question he was reflecting on something good to say. Zabuza also knew that Kisame would have never told the truth about how he was feeling, not even to him, but he was okay with that: after all, his friend also knew that he knew, so everything was fine. Their friendship had never been about bonding by sharing the suffering of their hearts, like normal people did. They bonded by drinking beer at the park, by beating up people together and by spending entire hours in complete silence in each other’s sole company.

“Of course I am!” Kisame replied with a grin, smacking his friend on the back of the head in a way that could have actually hurt, but Zabuza was too used to that to find it painful “I’m just concentrating on finding my new victim. If you see someone who looks younger than the average freshman, he might be our punching bag.”

Zabuza looked at his friend again, then a scary sneer appeared on his face. He didn’t need to worry about Kisame; his friend was strong and almost evil, he didn’t need his concern. The only person who was actually in trouble, in that moment, was the youngest freshman in school. _He_ needed to worry, a lot! Because they were looking for him, and they would have found him sooner or later. So he’d better enjoy his lunch, because that was his last moment of peace and quiet in Konoha High School!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we meet Sakura, another one of the main characters, and thanks to her we get an idea of some other students around the school. Now the question is: who might the boy in the school gym be?  
> We also see more Kisame and Zabuza, who are currently looking for their new victim. Poor kid...


	4. The most popular kid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm adding rape/non-con to the warnings for the story, since something like that will happen in the future. I didn't want to have such a scene in my story, but after I tried hard to make things work without it, I just realized it wasn't possible. For things to work out, I need a non-con scene later on. It's still several chapters away, though. But I still felt the need to let you know, since I added the warning.

Iruka couldn’t take his eyes off the boy. He was just _gorgeous_. It looked like he was fighting the air, throwing kicks to the empty space in front of him, or ducking to dodge imaginary attacks. He moved with the grace of a dancer, but the way the muscles in his body tensed made perfectly clear that every single one of his maneuvers was potentially lethal. There was something poetic in the way that boy battled against his invisible adversary, something that made impossible to stop looking right at him. Just by watching him, Iruka could understand that he was a martial arts fighter, even if he couldn’t understand which martial art he was training at. After all, Iruka was no expert, Naruto’s father had been the one who really knew everything about martial arts, so it was already more than enough that the teenager realized the other boy was practicing some kind of martial art and not just kick boxing.

The teenager inside the gym looked older than Iruka by at least a couple of years, so he probably was a senior. He was barefoot, wearing light-gray tracksuit bottoms with an elastic band around the ankles and a pretty close-fitting white t-shirt. The t-shirt was drenched with sweat, sticking even more to the abdomen and to the back of the athlete; it also became slightly see-through, giving a pretty precise idea of the flexing muscles underneath. The body itself was slim and tall, but with a perfectly defined musculature. It looked as it was too perfect to be real. His skin was incredibly pale, almost milky white. His face had no trace of facial air, not even around the chin. The boy had a narrow jawline, and almost perfectly flawless skin; the only imperfection was a small beauty mark located under the left corner of his mouth.

From that distance, Iruka couldn’t see the boy’s eyes very well, even if he pressed his face against the window hard enough to make his nose bend at a strange angle. From what he could see, they looked some kind of dark color. Not black, though, just a little lighter. A blue cloth band was resting on his forehead, perfectly tied behind his head. Its job was probably to make sure that a mass of messy gray hair wouldn’t fall on his face while training. The hair color was strange, but on the contrary of Sakura’s pink, it seemed to be natural. Iruka knew why someone could be born with gray or white hair: albinism, total or partial. It wasn’t rare as it seemed, especially the partial albinism, and he knew it very well: his grandfather had it too! His long, white hair had been snow-white since he was a little kid.

It was a huge effort to take his eyes off the window. But now, after seeing the boy, Iruka was more curious than ever to understand exactly _why_ almost every girl in the school was there to look at him. He looked at Sakura, who was staring at the boy with adoring eyes. He tried to attract her attention, but it was useless. She acted like he wasn’t even there, like the boy inside the gym was the only person that existed in the entire world. And Iruka didn’t know if he should laugh at Sakura’s reaction or just be pissed because she was ignoring him.

When the lunch break was almost over, the boy inside the gym stopped and used a towel to wipe the sweat off his face. Then he walked out of the gym, probably to take a shower so he wouldn’t stink during the afternoon classes. All of the girls outside the gym looked slightly disappointed, but they slowly started to walk away. Only then Sakura turned to look at him again, a bright smile on her face. Since he now had her attention again, Iruka decided it was time to know a little more about what was happening.

“Who was _that_?” he asked, a finger pointing at the window; Sakura smiled in return.

“That was Kakashi Hatake, by far the most popular guy in school.” Sakura answered, and with those words she started to walk around the school gym to find a door to get back inside the main building.

Kakashi Hatake. So that was the boy’s name. Iruka thought that he could actually understand why he was so popular. A guy looking like that, practicing some martial art in the school gym at lunch break. It wasn’t difficult to imagine why he was so admired. But his opinion, at that point, was that Kakashi was popular because he was handsome and athletic. Basically, he was well-known because all of the girls that were outside the school gym had some kind of crush on him. What Iruka didn’t know was exactly what the other students were saying about that boy, but Sakura made sure to fill him in soon.

“Kakashi is a senior, and he’s the best student of his year. People think he is the greatest genius in the history of Konoha High School, but of course they say it because they don’t know Shikamaru very well… by the way Kakashi can totally compete with Shika, I’m sure about that. I asked Shikamaru several times to challenge him on a chess game, since they both like this old-men-ish stuff, but he always refused to get involved. Sometimes I think he’s too lazy even to socialize, and being friends with the popular guys might be a tough job, one he doesn’t even want to try…” the girl explained while they reached the door that would take them back inside, going completely out of topic halfway through her speech “Since Kakashi is intelligent and handsome, almost every girl in this school has a crush on him. But he is so cool, so mysterious, so superior, that he usually doesn’t even acknowledge them. He just walks along the hallways looking perfect, and people stop on their tracks to admire him. But it’s not like he is a bad person or anything, it’s just an attitude, because when you see him hanging out with the other popular guys he’s just like everybody else… but _better_.”

She concluded her explanation when they reached Iruka’s locker. They stopped there for a moment, the boy considering the words Sakura just said. She described that Kakashi kid like he was pure perfection. And by the way she talked about him, Iruka was pretty sure she believed every single word she said. Looking at the other girls walking by, he thought that probably they all shared Sakura’s opinion. Was it true then? Was that Kakashi Hatake so awesome? For a moment he froze on the spot, a book in his hand halfway out of the locker. He remembered all too well the sensation he felt all over his body the moment his eyes met that boy’s figure for the first time. He thought he was glorious, too handsome to be true.

That was the first time he actually felt something towards another boy outside of his dreams. He knew he was attracted to his best friend from the city, but he only felt that attraction in his dreams, not when he met the boy in real life. But then, when his eyes landed on Kakashi, he felt something entirely different. He was attracted to him, for real. It wasn’t a dream, it was a true emotion. He still had many doubts about his sexuality, but maybe… maybe that encounter was a clue, after all. Was it possible that he really liked boys? Of course he couldn’t be sure about that with just a quick thought, but he knew for certain that he actually liked _that_ boy, at least.

This realization brought back several problems that Iruka had tried to take out of his mind since the moment he moved into town. What would happen to him if people found out that he liked another boy? His mother often talked to him about the people of Konoha, and how close-minded they were about so many things. In a time where gay marriage was becoming something normal for almost every State in the US, there still were may narrow realities so retarded that they actually thought gay people were an abomination. If Konoha was really one of those realities, how could he survive there?

But that really wasn’t the best time to think about something like that. He was in school, talking to Sakura, getting ready for the first class of the afternoon, so he had to force his mind to go back to the present. With that thought, Iruka closed his locker and turned to face Sakura again, smiling.

“You know, I think I understand why that boy is so popular. He seems kind of cool.” he said, trying to look as normal as possible.

Sakura reacted to his words with a happy smile. After a quick stop at the girl’s locker, so that she could pick up her stuff too, they started to head to class. But as soon as they turned the corner, something made them stop in their tracks. In front of their eyes, a bully had just shoved a younger kid into a locker, apparently just for the fun of it. So it looked like bullying was something that his new school had in common with the old one. The bully looked too old to be in high school; he was incredibly tall and muscular, with broad shoulders and blue hair combed to look like a shark fin. There was a sadistic look in his black eyes that just made him look terrifying.

All around them, people kept walking like nothing had happened. Was it possible that the bully was so scary that no-one tried to stand up to him? Iruka saw the younger kid try to walk away, but a second bully, as tall as the first one but way thinner, pushed him again and made him fall to the ground. The kid looked like he was in pain, but not a single soul tried to help him. In that precise moment, the popular kids walked into the hallway. Iruka could see the football player called Asuma, the cheerleader called Kurenai, another couple of football players and, hands in his jeans pockets and slouching, Kakashi. Since Kakashi was so awesome, Iruka was sure that he would have said something to the bullies. But nothing of that sort actually happened.

The biggest bully was holding the kid by his pretty long black ponytail, so that he wouldn’t leave. The other one was kicking the boy’s bag to spread his belongings on the floor. And when the cool kids saw that, they all started laughing. Iruka’s eyes widened in disbelief. How could they do something like that? How could the guy every girl adored hang out with those people? He turned towards Sakura, who was staring at Kakashi with an idiotic expression on her face, and at that point Iruka couldn’t really understand. How could she still think that boy was perfect, when he witnessed two bullies kicking around a defenseless kid and did nothing? He turned his gaze towards Kakashi again, and he could have never imagined what happened next.

“Yo Kisame, Zabuza!” Kakashi said, waving a hand to greet the bullies in a slightly bored way.

They both turned in his direction, but without letting go of the tortured kid on the floor, who was now trying to free his hair from the bully’s hold. The slim bully waved back, while the other smiled broadly.

“Hey Kakashi! What’s up?” the one with blue hair greeted back, entirely unconcerned about the kid he was holding down by the hair.

Kakashi shrugged. “It’s getting late, we’re going to class. You two coming along?” he asked, and with his head he motioned towards the rest of his group.

“Sure!” the biggest bully replied, his voice almost warm and friendly.

He used his hold on the boy’s hair to shove him into the lockers once more, then he let go and marched towards the popular kids, giving a high five to both Kakashi and Asuma. The other bully soon followed, and then they all headed away together, talking and laughing like the best of buds. Iruka couldn’t really believe what he saw. The most popular guy in school was _laughing_ with the bullies who had just picked on a younger kid. No, in his mind Kakashi was’t perfect at all. He was handsome, but he was a cruel asshole!

“How could you like someone like that?” Iruka asked Sakura, an accusatory tone in his voice.

Sakura didn’t answer the question, just looked away. Maybe she felt sorry for not looking indignant, Iruka couldn’t actually tell. But he didn’t want to waste time thinking about that, so he quickly walked towards the kid who was now starting to gather his things. Sakura followed him and also handed a couple of notebooks to the boy with a sweet smile. Iruka offered his hand to the kid, to help him stand back up, and he accepted.

“Thank you. You’re actually the only two people who at least did something to help me.” the boy’s voice was delicate; a child’s voice, no doubt.

“Actually, I’m sorry we didn’t help you earlier. Are you okay?” Iruka asked, concerned.

“Yes, thanks. By the way they would have hit you too if you’d tried to defend me…” the boy noted.

“Why did they treat you like that in the first place?” Iruka tried to ask again, his voice calm and gentle.

“I’m a year younger than the other freshmen. I think they found that amusing.” the way he answered the questions was almost cold, definitely not child-like, even if he was actually a child: being a year younger than the other freshmen meant that he was just thirteen.

“They usually do stuff like this.” Sakura said “They’re jerks, but the entire school is afraid of them and they’re friends with the popular kids, so they think they can do whatever they want.” she explained.

The kid lowered his gaze to look at his feet. He was pretty small, Iruka noticed. He was way shorter than him, he actually looked tiny. The kid had pale skin, small wrinkles on his cheekbones, big black eyes and a little-below-the-shoulders-long ponytail of black hair. He probably was more intelligent than the average thirteen-year-old, since he was able to enter high school a year in advance. But in that moment he only looked like a child who just got humiliated by some bullies on his first day of school. The kid had just gone through what Iruka most feared could happen to him. He felt the need to show him some solidarity!

“What’s your name?” Iruka inquired, hoping to take away the tension from the kid.

“Itachi.” he answered with a small smile “And you?”

“I’m Iruka and she’s Sakura. She’s been showing me around the school all day. You know, even if I’m not a freshman, this is my first day here too. Since we’re both new, maybe you and I could watch each other’s backs from now on, what do you say?” Iruka suggested.

Itachi looked at him and smiled sincerely. “Thank you very much. It’s been a pleasure meeting you two!” he said, and this time he sort of reminded Iruka of Naruto’s attitude.

* * *

History was a terribly boring subject, especially for someone who just needed to read the book once in order to remember every fact and every single date. Sitting down in class was pointless, a waste of precious time he could have spend doing something else. Training, probably. Kakashi was sitting in the middle of the classroom, hoping that something, anything, would happen to make his day better. So far, senior year wasn’t so much different from junior year. He went to class, behaved like the perfect student in front of the teacher, and waited for the bell to ring, before starting all over again with the next class.

On the back of the classroom, he could hear some other students talking. He had no doubt they were Kisame and his usual friends, Zabuza and Kakuzu. They always talked, pissing off all of the teachers, and sometimes Kakashi considered their attitude annoying. But in the end he’d known them for several years, and in time he’d learned how to ignore their voices and concentrate on the lesson. Not that he needed to take notes or something like that, but since he wasn’t allowed to do anything else while in class, listening to what the teacher was saying was the only thing he could do.

He listened to the teacher for less than five minutes before starting to get bored again. There was nothing new in what the woman was saying, it was just a recap of what they studied the previous year. And he was already familiar with those pieces of information, since he actually studied them more carefully than most of his classmates. Since reviewing old topics was just pointless, Kakashi simply spaced out and got lost in his own thoughts. He remembered his training during the lunch break, and once again he started wondering why all of those people were watching him. Well, all of those girls had a crush on him and the boys just admired him, that much he knew. What he was uncertain about was _why_.

Kakashi was the most popular student in Konoha High School, yet he couldn’t imagine the reason behind it. He always thought of himself like a perfectly normal boy. He had a rough past, that was true, but no-one in that school knew about it. Well, maybe Gai knew a little, but he’d never been the smartest guy around, so that never bothered Kakashi too much. At school he never talked to people, he preferred to stay alone, and he only hung out with the people who didn’t like to stare at him with awe; the fact that most of those people were incredibly popular didn’t matter. The fact is that Kakashi never asked to be popular, and he didn’t like it. People always looked at him, tried to impress him; girls clung on his arms while he walked around minding his own business. Seriously, why did other students work so hard to reach that “popular” status? It wasn’t worth the effort, it was just a pain in the ass!

Thoughts about his popularity at school kept coming back to Kakashi’s mind throughout all of the afternoon classes, making him uncomfortable. Then the bell rang, putting an end to his first day of school. Without saying a word, he grabbed his school bag and headed towards the classroom door in order to exit. Before leaving, by the way, he stopped and turned towards his usual friends who were still inside.

“Yo Asuma, Kisame. Wanna hang out tonight?” he asked.

Just listening to his voice, it could seem that he didn’t even care about what he was saying. But the other two knew him well enough to see through his attitude and just understand that he liked the idea of spending time with them. Well, after all it was better than staying home doing nothing at all. Moreover he usually had fun with them, so the idea of having a good time with his friends worked just perfectly for him. Kakashi looked at the other boys while they considered the options before giving them an answer.

“Sure. What do you have in mind?” Asuma asked, waiting for him to decide what to do. But Kakashi just shrugged at those words, because they knew very well that he didn’t like to be the one to organize, he preferred to just tag along.

“The park? I can get some beers.” Kisame suggested, and Asuma looked at him with a smile.

“Sounds awesome! Kakashi?” the quarterback looked for his friend’s confirmation.

“Okay. I’ll tell Gai, can you guys tell the rest of the gang?” Kakashi gave his opinion.

He liked the idea of hanging out at the park drinking beer. Kisame was younger than him, but he looked so much older that he could easily buy alcohol for everyone, and Kakashi was grateful for that. Sometimes alcohol was necessary, and he remembered all too well the few times he and Kisame got drunk together when the others weren’t around. Okay, maybe he didn’t actually _remember_ what happened, but the memories of the hangovers he had on the following days were hard to forget. Beer, though, was safe enough for him to have a good time and still remember about it the following day.

Thinking about the prospect of drinking, at first Kakashi didn’t notice the looks the other two exchanged when he mentioned Gai. By the way soon enough he realized that Kisame looked pissed and Asuma seemed a little uncomfortable.

“Why do you insist on having Maito hang out with us? He’s not one of us.” Asuma asked, trying to be friendly even if his words were quite the opposite.

“Right. Kashi, he’s so _uncool_. Every time I see his stupid face I just want to beat the crap out of him!” Kisame agreed with Asuma, making the other boy chuckle a little.

Kakashi sighed. He liked Gai, who was the first kid he met when he moved to Konoha as a child. Neither of them considered their relationship as “friendship”; Gai considered Kakashi his eternal rival, while Kakashi thought that Gai was mostly annoying. But there was something comforting in having that boy around, so he kept hanging out with him after making friends with Asuma and the others. He didn’t understand what was so wrong about having a non-popular guy go out with them, but the rest of the gang always seemed to be bothered by Gai’s presence every time Kakashi brought him along.

“You know, once you look past his terrible taste in clothes and hair-style, he’s not that bad. Just give him a chance, will you?” Kakashi tried to convince the other two, using his usual, calm voice.

“Whatever.” Asuma said after a while, probably deciding that Gai wasn’t a good reason to fight among each other, and Kisame snorted looking elsewhere.

Kakashi knew very well that they didn’t approve Gai, but that wasn’t enough of a reason for him not to bring the other boy along. He also knew that the gang would have complained, but even if the day they were going to see Gai as one of them was still too far away, they would have accepted his presence for the night out at the park. In the end, they always did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we finally see Kakashi. He is one of the most complex characters in this story, so throughout the chapters I'll analyze several aspects of his personality. What you saw in this chapter is not all of Kakashi, just a part of what everyone sees in school.  
> And then here we also met another one of the main characters: Itachi. The poor victim that Kisame and Zabuza chose to destroy. Poor kid! u.u


End file.
